Our German citizens of American birth are among our best citizens. Most of them are industrious, frugal, enterprising, progressive and strictly up to date. There is a strain of blood, perhaps something in the atmosphere in which they were born, which makes them good pioneers. They have an unerring scent for localities for profitable investments and improvements. Following is one of the many life stories which go to prove all this:
Henry Clarence Dippel, a prominent pioneer farmer and fruit-grower of Blackfoot, Idaho, is a native son of California, having been born at Lincoln, Placer County, October 26, 1859. His father and mother, Philip and Elizabeth (Smith) Dippel, were both born in Germany and, when children, came with their parents to Philadelphia, where they grew to maturity and were married. In 1848 they went to Mexico and thence came by the coast route to California. Air. Dippel was employed at his trade as carpenter, and later, during the pioneer days in the Golden state, in running a pack train, an enterprise which was not without excitement and profit. He lived out the balance of his lifetime in Placer county, California, and died there in 1898, aged seventy-three. His wife survives him, aged seventy-four. After his early experiences he settled down to farm life and was so successful that he left a considerable estate, which is now owned by his heirs. He was long a member of the German Lutheran church, with which his wife is still identified.
Henry Clarence Dippel was the fourth in order of birth of the children of Philip and Elizabeth Dippel. He was brought up on a farm and was educated in the public schools of California and at Atkinson Business College, from which institution he was graduated in 1878. After that he came almost immediately to Blackfoot, Idaho. The railroad was then under construction through this part of the state, and its terminus had moved on to Idaho Falls. He sought out a favorable point, located on three hundred and twenty acres of land, improved it, and sold it well in 1887. He then bought his present fifty-acre farm adjoining the town of Blackfoot, where he has a fine home. His buildings are all large and convenient, he has the best water privileges, and, all in all, he is as comfortably situated as any one need care to be. To Mr. Dippel belongs the distinction of having been the first in this part of the state to grow small fruits for market, and he is among Idaho’s foremost successful horticultural farmers. His principal products in this line are strawberries, which he ships to Montana, where they find a ready and profitable sale.
Mr. Dippel is a Democrat, but not a practical politician. His farm interests are so extensive that he has no time to seek offices and very little in which to assist others into them. He was married in 1880 to Miss Luella May Parsons, a native of Illinois, and they have five children, named as follows: Harold, Daisy, Guy, Luella and Ralph.